Fanga

Ever since I can remember, growing up our house was always full!  We constantly had visitors or house guests, or family from overseas who would come and need a place to stay for sometimes a few days, sometimes a few months....and sometimes even longer!  My mom's always been such a good sport with allowing her house to be pretty much taken over, for pretty much my whole life.

Now that me and my brother and sisters are all married and have moved out of the house.....it's still no  different.  4 of my first cousins live with my parents now......sort-of my parent's new kids.....and our brothers and sister.

I know I've blogged about Leka before.....she's my Dad's younger brothers daughter who came for my grandparent's funeral 4 years ago, and she decided to stay here in America with my parents.  We love Leka....she's such a good Aunty, always playing with the kids and helping out whenever needed.  She's our little sister that we can always count on!

Then there's Safi, he's my Dad's younger sister's son.....straight from Vaini.....he's been here for a few years now too!  Misi Pou is my Dad's cousin's son, and then there's Fanga....he's my Dad's other cousin's son.....

Needless to say, even with all their kids married and gone, my parent's have got a full house!

The boys, Safi, Misi Pou and Fanga all work with my Dad and Uncle Daniel doing yard-work/construction.  It's nice to have a family business that can keep these boys employed while their here so that they have their own money to do what they want.

Well, the job they have now is actually really close to my parent's house......way way west of Spanish Fork.....in a small town of Lake Shore (the South shore of Utah lake)......up in the mountains.  Since their job site was pretty close to my parent's house, Leka decided to ride her bike up to visit them.  The chain on her bike was giving her problems while she was riding up there and she decided she didn't want to ride the bike back home so she had one of the boys drop her off.  Everyone knew the bike's chain had issues.  Fanga didn't want to leave the bike at the worksite, so when the job was done he said he would ride it home.  Remember they were working on a mountain, so he had to go down a pretty steep hill to get home.  As he was riding he grabbed on to the back of a truck and the next thing we know he's laying on the ground covered in blood.

I wasn't there, but I got the text from my mom that they were in the emergency room with Fanga because he'd been in an accident.  It happened so quickly that nobody really saw what happened, but by the damage done to his body.....you could tell he landed on his head and pretty much rolled until he stopped!  His head was the main point of impact and you could see a big hole, lots of blood, and part of his brain.....and then he had road rash all over the other side of his face.....on both of his arms, down both of this legs....on his stomach and his back.  He obviosuly doesn't remember anything about what happened.  But he's got all the injuries to prove it.

**Pictures are graphic....so head's up!!**

Fanga right after they stitched up the hole in his head

His accident happened on a Monday and Tuesday we decided to go and visit him at the hospital.  I can't believe how well he is doing for what he went through.  The two pictures below are him on the day after the accident, day 2.  He had a couple operations that morning to repair his eye socket, and part of his jaw.  They had to put a stitch in his eyelid to keep it closed so his eye can stay moist until he can get the muscle working enough for him to blink.  He's also on a puree diet for a month because the muscle that works the jaw bone was damaged and had to have surgery.  The nurses were amazed at how strong he was and how he didn't want any pain medication at all, even after the operations.  They would continually come in and check on him and ask him what his pain level was and he would always say a 2 or 3, but that he didn't want any medicine.  They kept telling us to tell him that he didn't need to be strong, if he wanted the medicine, he could have some.....but he honestly was doing ok.  He got up and walked around the floor of his hospital a couple times and he even was able to take a shower.  Because he was doing so well, they were able to discharge him on Wednesday, day 3.  Since then he's been home recovering quickly and trying not to starve to death on his only liquid diet.....poor thing!  haha  We all joke that it must be that Tongan blood that makes him so tough....hahaha

Makai with Uncle Fanga

We love you Fanga!  Hope you continue to have a speedy recovery!